Activists plan plaza protest

Occupy St. Augustine organizers voted Tuesday to request a city permit allowing them to assemble on the Plaza de la Constitucion for a planned demonstration Nov. 5 to protest economic disparity.

The group’s goals are very similar to those of the 99 percenters who are demonstrating across the country against what they say is an economic system that leaves the vast majority of people behind.

The group — meeting at the Plaza’s Gazebo — had announced last week that they wouldn’t be asking the city manager for permission to meet there.

But after Commander Barry Fox of St. Augustine police said obtaining the one-day $25 permit will allow demonstrators to use a loudspeaker, dance and play music, they reconsidered.

Their method of voting is consensus, so there are no leaders, just facilitators who vary frequently.

Fox said he attended the organizing meeting to answer any questions and coordinate with organizers.

“We’ve never policed a rally or a protest, though we’ve had a presence (at them),” he said. “We’ve never had a protest go wrong.”

SAPD officers might place themselves between hostile groups, he said.

He added that “snipe signs,” those omnipresent wire signs that are pushed into the ground, are prohibited. “You’ll have to hold your own signs.”

This organizing meeting of people “committed to democracy,” consisted of Flagler students, young parents, older activists, former anti-war demonstrators and interested people just walking by.

Aubrey Skillman, a spokesman for Occupy St. Augustine, said he wants to keep this a “family-friendly event. Even though it is political, it is not partisan. This is a first step. The country is fractured and divisive in a lot of ways. This will bring us together.”

This event came from the Occupy Wall Street movement that has filled Wall Street with demonstrators who called themselves the 99 percent. The traders, bankers and super-rich are considered the one-percent.

The movement has spread all across the United States and to foreign countries as people who have lost their jobs, have foreclosed homes and no pensions see rich people who pay little tax and get tax breaks from the government.

They feel angry, duped and robbed by high-flying financial manipulators and their congressmen,

Flagler College sophomore Logan Guidry, 19, said, “I’ve been keeping up with Occupy Wall Street pretty much since it happened. I’m very sympathetic to what they are doing. It’s pretty much all over the world. Let’s bring it to our town.”

Mike Parker, a young man who identified himself as a “random facilitator,” that evening encouraged the organizers to “respect everyone and the environment” during the coming rally.

“I love the community aspect of this that’s already forming,” Parker said.

He and others created what they called a “Good Vibes Tribe” area where those stressed, overwrought or overcome by the demonstration’s energy can go to meditate or chill out during what could be to be an emotionally charged occasion.

The organizers Tuesday also created subcommittees for communications and sanitation.

“I’ll be doing clean up!” one enthusiastic woman exclaimed.

The question of whether to hold a march or parade arose. According to Fox, parades required permits, but a lot of people walking together is not considered a parade and requires no permit.

The organizers were told that at 11 a.m. that Saturday, an annual Respect Life parade begins at Prince of Peace Catholic Church and heads south, ending at the Castillo de San Marcos.

Neither group will have contact with the other.

All the organizers were told that this would be a non-violent demonstration.

“This is not a place to find confrontation. It’s for sharing ideas,” one organizer said.

Another, Terry Buckenmeyer, was encouraged by the work of the organizing group.

“This is what democracy looks like,” he said. “This is what I wanted to see happen — all kinds of people coming together to decide what they want to do in our community.”